The Motor Drivers News.
Page 19
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Christmas Day in Edinburgh.
W.A.N. ((ilasgow) writes us as follows :—" I send you an account of the work which I did on Christmas Day with my Halley steam lorry. I left the depot in. Bath Road, Leith, at 8./5 a.m. I had to do four journeys each way horn the Leith docks to the Haymarket flour mills—a distance of 4 miles—loaded up with s tons x4cwr. of wheat each journey. We had a hard day's work, and carried altogether 22 tons iticwt. Including the time taken in loading and discharging our freight at the mills, the day's work was just over eight hours. I may add that the wagon was on trial at the time, and did exactly the same work for eight consecutive weeks without losing a single hour from any failure of the machinery. I should like to see more letters in this interesting page of your journal."
Home for the Christmas Dinner.
(Lindfield) sendsus this account of his run on Christmas Day :—" I hope the following description of the trip I made on December 25th last will be interesting to your readers. I am driving a 2-loll Thornycrof I steam wagon, and my speed limit is eight miles per hour. Unfortunately for me, I had to work last Christmas Day, so myself and my mate decided to start away early in the morning so as to finish by dinner time if possible. With this object in view, I went Over the whole of the lorry on the previous night, thoroughly greasing and adjusting any part that required it. After getting round to the shed at 5 a.m. the next morning, we lit the fire, and, taking a last took round, we went to the loading point and picked up about one ton of linen. We finally started off at 6.20 a.m., our destination being Brighton, a distance of some 16 miles away. We arrived there at 8.35 a.m., doing the journey in just 21 hours, and stopping once for water on the trip. After unshipping our load, we put on some more freight, weighing about / ton rwt., and started at once for home. The hour was now 9.30 a.m., so I turned on steam, and we went along at a fine pace, arriving home at 11.40 a.m., doing the journey in 2 hours JO minutes ; a saving of 5 minutes over the outward journey. I had finished the cleaning and wiping down by 12.45 p.m. To me it was a satisfactory run, as everything went all right, and there were no mishaps.* We were enabled to have our Christmas dinner at our homes instead of eating it by the roadside." A.C.C. also sends us some remarks with respect to the proper working of lorry boilers, lie says :—" I notice that it number of your readers appear to have trouble with leaking tubes. I have been driving this wagon for over three years, and have never had any trouble either with the tubes or the boiler itself. Whether this is due to what is called luck, or to good management, I must leave others to judge. There are one or two points, however, which I find are of great assistance in the successful running of a steam lorry. I make it an invariable rule to keep a bright fire, and I never run with the fire-box door open, unless the wagon is running down a hill; at which time there is little or no draught on. It is a common occurrence for drivers who have to replenish their water tanks at the roadside to find that their boilers prime very much, especially while a hill is being negotiated. This is likely to cause the scoriiigof the cylinders' wails, and also the valves and their faces. To avoid this I empty my boiler and fill it up with clean coki water first of all, thoroughly rinsing it out through one. of the plug holes. Since I have employed this method, I have not been troubled by priming, and as the whole pro cess only takes about ten minutes to do, it well repays any small amount of extra work. I have just taken out the rings of the H.P. piston, and, after three years' work, I find that they are in perfect order and have faces with a surface like f2;lass. Some drivers always scent to have had luck with their boilers, which appear to have a constant desire to prime on every possible occasion, the result being that new piston rings are required about every six or eight months."
How to Mend a Reversing Link.
S.J.C. (Wimbledon) writes :—" I hope the following account of a mishap which I had some time ago will prove of sufficient interest for inclusion in your Drivers News. A few months ago, while driving a steam tractor, I had the misfortune to br-;:ak the slot link connecting the slide valve rod with the eccentric rods. The fracture was located near the eye which held the pin of the forward eccentric rod, and it appeared, on inspection, to have happened owing toa flaw in the metal. At the time, I was some 14 miles from home and right away in the country. I therefore had to help myself as best I could. First of all I took the link out, and found that it was out of the question to use it, as it was so badly damaged, so I decided to connect up the valve spindle to the forward eccentric rod. I obtained a piece of wrought iron 11 inch wide, by lin. thick, from a farm close by. The material had originally been part of a tyre belonging to a farm cart, and the piece in question was about [our feet in length. My task was to make a link which would just fill the gap between the ends of the valve and eccentric rods. I found the distance required, and made two holes in the iron with the aid of a punch fashioned from an old file, and then cut the piece off. I found that three thicknesses of metal were required to make up the width between the jaws of the rods. When all was ready I bolted everything in place, and then took off the steam chest cover to see if the valve was in its right position. I found that it was lin. out of its correct position, but, luckily, I found enough screwed end on the valve rod to be able to adjust it. My next difficulty was to find something to make a new joint on the valve chest. The only thing procurable was a piece of sacking, which I found answered well. I then started off, and went steadily for a mile, at which point I intended to take in water. -While I was doing this, I examined the improvised link, and found it standing up well. My only difficulty was when I wished to reverse, as I had to disconnect the forward eccentric and connect up the other one in its place. However, we sent for a new slot-link, which arrived the following day."
A Soldering Query.
N.A.T. (Hartlepool) sends the following query :—" Will some fellow driver tell me the best way to put a patch on my water tank? The bottom corner has started to teak badly, and as the hole is between two of the rivets it is most difficult to get at. I have tried ordinary solder and a tin patch, but cannot get it to hold properly, although I have cleaned the surfaces thoroughly. I have tried " killed " spirit and resin as fluxes, but neither of them seem to do their work as they should."
[The small response to our offer of a special Christmas prize shows that few owners of commercial motors put their machines to use that day. An extra 5s. is awarded to " W.A.N.," in addition to is. id. for his contribution, whilst" A.C.C." receives los. in all.—.ED.j